U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 17473 / April 16, 2002

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Oval Financial & Investment Group Ltd., Civil Action No. 02-CV-0117 K (JFS) (S.D. Cal.)

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California granted its application for enforcement of an investigative subpoena issued to Oval Financial & Investment Group, Ltd. ("Oval Financial"). The Court found that Oval Financial's response to an order to show cause why it should not be compelled to comply with the Commission's subpoena was without merit.

The Commission filed its application for enforcement of its subpoena on January 17, 2002. The investigative subpoena sought documents and testimony regarding, among other things, whether Oval Financial offered and sold unregistered securities and made materially false and misleading statements or omitted to state material facts concerning the use of investor proceeds and the investments' rates of return.